Bauman Impact Crater

of Central Montana

Hypothesis and presentation of supporting evidence that the
hexagonal shaped geology observed in central Montana is the result of an impact
from a large asteroid type object.

Central Montana is my home ground. I have always been curious about my
surroundings and as a young boy I became interested in science and how things
worked, especially space, geology, and physics. And now, fifty years later, I believe that I
have discovered a major surface feature that would help explain a number of
geologic anomalies associated with central Montana. Specifically I have
discovered a large impact crater or impact basin that covers between one ninth
and one sixth of the entire state. I have identified at least two
fracture zones that define this structure; an inner hexagonal shaped ring that
outlines the primary fracture zone and an outer vee shaped area that follows
the same angular pattern and is part of a secondary ring that expands the
fracture zone to the south. Both are clearly visible on a Montana 3-D map
printed in 1977 by Kistler Graphics - first observed in June of 2001. I have looked at a number of maps and other
images such as satellite and digital images over the past few years and none of
them show the impact zone in such clear detail and in such high relief as this
particular map. Since no one else has brought this geologic feature to
the attention of the world, I thought I would, I therefore declare that this
geologic structure be known as the Bauman Impact Crater.

My name is David D. Bauman; I was born in
Lewistown Montana in 1951 and lived in central Montana until 1975. I grew
up at Eddies Corner during this time because my dad was part owner and our
family lived close by. Eddies Corner has been a family business since
1949 when my grandfather bought it from two guys named Ed. My uncles
still own and operate it today. I worked at the service station until I
graduated from Moore High School in 1970. I then attended Montana State
University in Bozeman where I studied geology. My classmates and I would
discuss various odd formations that are unique to central Montana.
Admittedly, this was just an introduction to the complex science of natural
geology and I do not claim to possess the knowledge of a true
professional. However, I still intend to make my case and to present a
convincing argument to support my hypothesis. I would ask that if
anyone has information to support my claim - that this geologic feature was
created by a collision with a large object from space - that they would come
forward and say so. And dare I ask? If anyone has evidence that
would disprove my claim, that they would also come forward and say so. I
would much prefer supporting evidence or at least some constructive critique
and not just contrary criticism. Can you please help me out? My
observation is presented here as a hypothetical concept that is intended to
further the quest for knowledge.

Let’s start with the visible evidence. There is a definite geometric shape centered on my map of
Montana. The outlines of this shape circumscribe an almost perfect
hexagon. I count six sides and six corners. My research suggests
that the hexagon shape is the result of an oblique angle of impact. I also
study astrophysics and have found images of craters on other bodies in the
solar system that show the same angular pattern. Current understanding
says that the results of an object of sufficient size and velocity striking at
a low angle of incidence are not circular but angular. I believe that
this pattern reflects the way a shock wave is propagated by a glancing blow
from a very large object. If I was to guess I would say that this object
was an extremely large asteroid or a small planetoid. Some impact
craters that we can see on other bodies throughout the solar system have a
central cone or rebound peak - this crater does also. It is in the form of
a structure called the Judith Mountain Group. They form a central cone
clearly in the middle of the central ring. Let me quote Roadside Geology
of Montana (RGM), “arge masses of magma rose, one after the other, into
this area about 50 million years ago, pushing through the rock formations
beneath the plains like great pistons” (Alt & Hyndman, 1997 p.332) (`a).
This comment is in reference to a group of igneous intrusions
that are geologically similar; the North and South Moccasin Mountains, the
Judith Mountains, and Black Butte. RGM goes on to say that, “The rising
masses of magma popped up the sedimentary formations above them as though they
were trapdoors hinged at one edge and now we find these older formations
tightly wrapped around the younger intrusive masses”(`a).

Can you begin to get a vision for what we are
really looking at here?

I believe that what I see here is a rebound cone that
popped back after the initial shock wave fractured the crust of the earth in
this very spot. The enormous amount of energy released downward was then
reflected and released upward to form the ‘Great Pistons’ and ‘Hinged Doors’
that RGM writes about. They also go on to say that, "large
exposures of pale gray Madison limestone, rock normally several thousand feet
down in this part of Montana, are especially conspicuous”(`a). This seems to
indicate a highly localized force of great power.

Also worth mentioning are the quartz
phenocrysts found at the top of Judith Peak. Unusual crystals of smoky or
black quartz are in the dikes southeast of the old radar site. And found
close by is a particular variety of quartz known as the Dobe Diamond; it has
the unique hexagonal shape of a six sided double ended prism. A
coincidence that I will take as a sign I am on the right path and proceed
undaunted with my concept that an impactor of enormous size is responsible for
the unique geology of central Montana. As many would know, the Judith
Mountains were named by Captain Meriwether Lewis, of Lewis and Clark fame, to
impress his girlfriend back east. These men were explorers for the Corps
of Discovery that passed through this area in 1805, so in that same spirit of
discovery I shall continue to explore and to examine new concepts.

Next in line is the Ring of Fire.
If we look at the different mountain ranges that lie along the outline of the
inner hexagon, we find a series of igneous intrusions and volcanic
activity. To the west we have the great granite stocks of the Little
Belts that intruded the older strata with a swarm of laccoliths; a laccolith is a
plutonic structure that invaded the sedimentary layers from below with molten
magma, creating an underground blister. Continuing clockwise we have the volcanic
Highwood Mountains along with all their associated dikes and laccoliths, including
Square Butte and Round Butte. To help explain further: the molten rock that
solidified under the surface is an intrusion and molten rock that solidified
above the surface is an extrusion. So, the lava of volcanoes is extruded magma
that came from below and flowed out on top of the existing surface before it
cooled down and solidified. Intrusions: like dikes, diatremes,
laccoliths, batholiths, and stocks are also made of magma, which is the same or
similar material except that it cooled down much slower under the surface.
Later, as the forces of erosion do their work we are left with a view of
an old laccolith like Square Butte. On to the north we have the Bearpaw Mountains,
an isolated cluster of volcanoes that include a number of spectacular igneous
intrusions along with equally impressive igneous extrusions. Continuing on to
the east we have the Little Rocky Mountains, a sharp dome punched in the plains
by a huge igneous intrusion surrounded by steeply tilted sedimentary
rock. Igneous intrusions seem to be a recurring theme through out the impact basin. But please notice that all of this igneous
activity surrounds one great exception to the rule and that is the Snowy
Mountains. It begs the question; how did a block of sedimentary rock get
pushed up right in the middle of all this plutonic activity? It is
incongruent, it doesn’t make any sense, and under normal circumstances it
doesn’t fit together. So I propose that in order to make sense of it all,
that we think of the area inside of the hexagonal ring as fractured
plates. Fairly large fractured plates mind you, not unlike the hinged
trapdoors that were mentioned earlier. One of the largest of these
unhinged plates received a shove in the proper direction and became what we now
call the Snowy Mountains. The Snowies are what is known as a block
uplift mountain; a section of the earth’s crust that was lifted up and tilted
on edge. It is a crustal arch that exposes layers of rock that would
otherwise be thousands of feet below the surface. Let’s be clear; I don’t
think that the Snowy Mountain plate immediately popped out of the ground when
the impact occurred. However, I do think that the crust was immediately
fractured into plates by an impact from a large space rock about 50 million
years ago. And then shortly after that impact the mountains of the inner ring
were formed as enormous pressures from below were released. Magma pockets
were opened up and the concentrated pressure of the compressed lower strata
pushed up from below.

Due to the geology of plate tectonics compressional
forces develop as the continent moves to the west. These forces were
stored up overtime. And then because of the shock effect of an asteroid
impact the pent-up compressional energy of 100 million years was released and
the fractured plates moved up and moved apart. The unhinged plates
floated higher on the denser mantle material below and magma filled the cracks
as they developed in the crust above. It looks to me like the Snowy Mountain plate got
a particularly powerful shove that pushed the northern part down and lifted the
southern part up.

Over eight thousand feet of vertical lift has revealed the stratified layers of over 500 million years of
sedimentary deposits, deposits that were laid down in a shallow sea teaming
with life. Indeed, we can find fossilized sea creatures on top of and
buried within the sedimentary strata of the Snowy Mountains. Trilobites
and brachiopods from the Cambrian period, crinoids and corals from the
Carboniferous period, old oysters, ammonites, and squid like belemnites from the
Jurassic period and even some sharks in the Bear Gulch formation that have been
perfectly preserved for over 230 million years. All this came from the
bottom of an ancient sea that is now part of a high mountain.

I would like to quote from Physical Geology by
Leet and Judson, one of my text books:

“The Rockies are Fold Mountains; fold
mountains provide us with spectacular examples of deformed rocks. The numerous
folds of anticlines and synclines have been sliced open to view by streams
cutting into them as the land moved upward from forces causing a rise in
elevation. The lands against which these rocks were pushing now stand as
plateaus; broad, high-standing regions underlain by sedimentary rocks
relatively little deformed” (Leet
& Judson, 1965, p.264). Picture
a horizontal zigzag like a piece of paper that is pleated on one half and flat
on the other and then the whole thing is pushed together and bent upward – so that half is crumpled
and half is relatively flat, but the whole thing is under elastic compression
and bowed upward. Think of a box compactor full of rubber balls and
floating on top is a piece of sheet rock precisely cut to completely cover the
area from side to side and from end to end. Now have someone turn it on
while you stand in the middle. Wait until the ends start to come together
and the balls are compressed and the sheet rock starts to bend upward.
This is a mental model of the conditions in central Montana about 50 million
years ago. So now I would like to point out that the Bauman Impact
Structure sits squarely on the border between the Rocky Mountain Chain and the
Great Plains of North America. The hexagonal ring is right on the edge
between the folded mountains to the west and the raised plateau to the
east. The crust in this area of central Montana would have been
relatively weak and probably pocketed with hot spots of magma, even though it
was relatively little deformed at the time. Still, the rocks under it
were under tremendous compression and starting to bow upward, however they had
not reached their elastic limit yet. To the east was a relatively flat plateau
that continued on for hundreds of miles. To the west was, and still are, the
numerous folds of the Rocky Mountains that had developed into a series of
basically parallel ridge lines that lie about 30 degrees from geographic
north. My point is that the ridge line of the Snowy Mountains is about 80
degrees from geographic north, a huge departure from the general trend of the
mountain ridges that begin less than 100 miles away. This departure from the general
trend should be an indication that the forces that created the Snowy Mountains
are separate from the forces that created the Rocky Mountains immediately to
the west. Back to our mental picture of you standing in the middle of the
compactor; now jump on the sheetrock. What do you think will
happen? The surface will break into pieces and the whole mass will
rebound and increase in elevation. I believe the shock wave from a large
meteor impact triggered a combination of elastic, plastic and brittle
deformation reactions. The crust of the earth was under stress from below
and did not have the strength to withstand the strain of impact. Hence we
have fractures, breaks, and uplifted plates. One of these plates, the
Snowy Mountain plate, looks like an asymmetrical fold where the strata was
pushed up and severely stretched on the steep side of the fold. The breaking
point of the upper strata was exceeded and the upper layers of rock broke away,
but the middle and lower strata were pliable enough to bend. They were bent up
and bent over, forming the folded block we see today; comprising the south
face (south limb), top ridge (east/west strike), and north slope (north limb)
of the mountain block. It looks like the kind of fold that would be
developed if you took your boot and kicked the surface of a rug in such a way
that it created a single fold. Better yet, cover the rug with mud and let
it dry a little bit for more realism. The upper crust would crack and
fall away but the bottom layer would bend and remain part of the fold. According to current understanding; Fold
Mountains created by compression always result in a series of parallel folds
that form together, so that there is more than one ridge line, meaning more
than one fold. The Snowy Mountains are a single fold that stands alone
and is therefore out of the ordinary and probably not caused by common
compressional forces. It looks like a gigantic scuff mark caused by
something that ripped into, then dragged and deformed the outer skin to leave a giant
scab on the surface of the plains. Consider the results of an extremely
shallow angle of impact from an extremely large object.

The Little Belts take a beating: Because they are located at a focal point of the hexagonal
ring, they were most likely influenced by the impact. Since the Little
Belt Mountains were already in existence they should show some sign that there
were shock effects at work. Therefore we should see a combination of
folds, faults, and unique geologic anomalies. And this is exactly what we
observe. In fact the Little Belts are home to one of the most unusual gem
stones in the world – the Yogo Sapphire. I am told that a sapphire can
only develop at pressures and temperatures that are found at the mantle
level. The question is, how can a sapphire that developed deep below the crust
be brought to the surface and exposed? I believe that the Yogo Sapphire
is a direct result of the shock effect. Whether the sapphires were
blasted up through a fissure that opened up, or whether they were already close
to the surface and were subsequently morphed into their present form by a shock
wave is yet to be determined. But no matter which way the sapphires were
formed, their existence can still be directly attributed to the impact of an
asteroid about 50 million years ago.

And
just because my so called Ring of Fire is relatively flat and bare looking to
the east doesn’t mean that there are not significant surprises to be uncovered
there.

The Last Diatreme: from the macroscopic to the microscopic. Think
shock-metamorphosis of quartz and planar deformation features or PDF for short.
A diatreme is a small igneous intrusion generally shaped like a dike or
vertical cylinder composed of peridotite (an igneous rock composed essentially
of augite and olivine) derived directly from the earth’s mantle. A
diatreme carries material from the mantle level to the surface of the earth’s
crust. I am continuing my research while I am writing this paper and to
be honest I had forgotten this fact until I read about the Smokey Butte
diatreme just west of Jordan. By a strange coincidence I had picked up my
copy of Roadside Geology of Montana once again and was attracted to a section
about Jordan, MT. My father’s family and mother’s family both lived in
Jordan, so I have roots there. I was intrigued by what RGM had to say, “Smokey
Butte is a butte because it contains a diatreme, one of those small igneous
intrusions that punched up from the earth’s mantle about 50 million years
ago. Most of Montana’s diatremes are in the central part of the state;
this is the easternmost known outpost of that activity, and it contains two of
Montana’s most interesting discoveries.” (1) “A French mineralogist found
in it a mineral called armalcolite that is otherwise known only in rocks
collected on the Moon.” (as in full of impact craters)And “the rocks exposed in Smokey Butte
contain a thin layer of the dark sediment that marks the boundary between
Cretaceous and Tertiary (Paleogene) time everywhere in the world that rocks of
that age exist.” (Alt & Hyndman, 1997, p.411)(`b). This is the thin layer of dust that marks the
end of the dinosaurs reign, the K-T or K-Pg boundary, recognized because of its
high content of iridium. And (2) “More than this, the fatal layer also
contains a material far more incriminating than iridium, an extremely rare
mineral called stishovite, a distinct variety of quartz that forms only in
explosion-shocked rocks.”… “The dust layer at Smokey Butte also contains
mineral grains full of microscopic fractures in a pattern known to occur only
in rocks shattered in extremely violent explosions.” To further quote
RGM, “The shocked mineral grains and stishovite at Smoky Butte provide the
most conclusive evidence so far found to support the theory that the dinosaurs
did indeed die under a dark cloud of dust ejected from a big meteorite
explosion crater.”(`b)

Maybe, just maybe, there was more than one
crater event. What if the crater event in Central Montana played a
part? Even if it was 15 million years after the Chicxulub Impact, the
Bauman Impact Event may have brought evidence to the surface. Or maybe
this impact resulted in some world class events of its own.

Massive Dynamics; let me restate the obvious: It is not by coincidence that the hexagon shape in central
Montana and the hexagon shape on other bodies in the Solar System look the
same. There is a definite correlation between cause and effect at work
here. Since physics is the same throughout the universe; it follows that if the
hexagon shape on other bodies in the universe was caused from an impact then
the hexagon shape we see here on earth was also caused from an impact. So now
look closely at the images of Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, and Albategnius, the
impact craters in the central region of our own Moon. They are definitely
angular and hexagon in shape. There is no doubt that these are impact
craters. Therefore there is little doubt that the hexagon shaped geology
in central Montana was also caused from an impact, and is in fact an impact
crater. As a matter of further proof, consider Gula and Achelous, impact
craters on Ganymede, a moon of Jupiter. They also show a decidedly
angular shape, plus there is a noticeable secondary ring around both of these
craters that shows an angular pattern. I believe that this feature is an
outer ring caused from shock wave fracture and it is not just ejecta splatter
that we observe. And there are many other examples out there; consider
Tindr crater on Callisto, also a moon of Jupiter, this impact shows similar
angular features, and Mimas a moon of Saturn which has a huge hexagonal crater,
and Iapetus another moon of Saturn that has multiple hexagonal craters, and the
planet Mercury also has hexagonal craters, and dwarf planet Ceres has hexagonal
craters, and the list goes on. So now back to earth. I believe that
because the object that struck central Montana was extremely large, that it was not
totally vaporized in an explosive reaction, but rather imparted most of its
kinetic energy into a deep and penetrating shock wave. Think of the
difference in energy between a small hammer and a large hammer, or the
explosive energy of a small caliber bullet compared to a large caliber bullet.
In a similar fashion a small object moving at high velocity tends to
explode on impact and thus create a circular crater. The explosive energy
release is circular even when impacting at a shallow angle of contact.
But with objects of sufficient size and shape, and if the angle of approach is
shallow enough, the explosive component will not be enough to cause the object
to totally vaporize. To be sure, part of the objects mass will be
converted into explosive energy and vaporize, but part of the objects mass will
continue on and its momentum of contact will be converted into a shock
wave. So we have both explosive cratering and shock wave fracturing all
from the same impactor. I believe that when the size, speed, and angle of
impact are combined in just the right proportions the result is a hexagonal
impact crater. Still, the truth is not based on what I believe. The
truth is based on what the facts are. And the fact is I see a
pattern. As a matter of fact I see the hexagon shape of a shock wave crater. What about
you?

How big is the crater?

According to my
measurements, the distance from the west side, where Belt creek passes by Belt,
to the east side, where the Musselshell River passes by Mosby is about 140
miles across. Likewise measuring from
where the Missouri River passes by Fort Benton to where the Musselshell River
passes by Roundup is also 140 miles. And
if I start from where the fracture line would be if the Little Rocky Mountains
had not covered it up with a mountain at Zortman and measure across to where
the Musselshell passes close to Martinsdale, I get about 135 miles. Obviously the Musselshell River follows part
of the fracture line and the Missouri River follows another part of the
fracture line. Because the Bearpaw
Mountains developed at the northern point of the fracture zone the Missouri
River was forced to go around. And the
Missouri followed a similar detour because of where the Little Rocky Mountains
developed. Still for the most part the
rivers follow the old fracture line, which would make sense from a geologic
point of view.

The bottom line question is; is it possible? Do the facts fit the hypothesis? The answer is; yes
it is possible. And given the supporting evidence, not only possible but
probable. But before you decide that I don’t know what I am talking
about, would you please stop and consider this; That even though you have the right to your own opinion and you are allowed to critique my hypothesis, you are not allowed to criticize my concept. So please read my entire presentation before you speak - otherwise you speak from a position of ignorance. Please consider this
impact event a real possibility and please be considerate in your
critique.

To quote Sir Isaac Newton, "No great discovery was ever made without a bold guess."